Product description

Ways of working towards sustainable agriculture for our world have never been more important. This reissued edition of a classic biodynamic work from 1947 is as relevant now as when first published. The book covers all aspects of biodynamic agriculture, including ideas on forestry and market gardening, and includes chapters on evidence of scientific findings of the effect of biodynamic growing, and the effects of biodynamics on health. The book has been faithfully reproduced as originally published, but footnotes have been added to describe modern versions of methods referenced in the text.

Author information

Ehrenfried Pfeiffer (1899-1961) was born in Munich. He visited the USA several times in the 1930s, was awarded a doctorate for his groundbreaking Sensitive Crystallisation theory as a blood test for detecting cancer, and emigrated there in 1940. He pioneered biodynamic agriculture in the USA and helped found the Biodynamic Farming & Gardening Association. He died in Spring Valley, New York. Lady Eve Balfour (Evelyn Barbara Balfour, 1899-1990) was an English farmer, educator, organic farming pioneer, and a founding figure in the organic movement. She was one of the first women to study agriculture at an English university, graduating from the University of Reading.

Table of contents

Introduction 1. The Farmer of Yesterday and Today 2. The World Situation of Agriculture 3. Prosperity, Security and the Future 4. The Farm in its Wider Connections 5. The Soil, a Living Organism: The 'Load Limit' in Agriculture 6. The Treatment of Manure and Compost 7. Maintenance of the Living Condition of the Soil by Cultivation and Organic Fertilizing 8. How to Convert an Ordinary Farm into a Biodynamic Farm 9. Comments on Forestry 10. Comments on Market Gardening 11. The Dynamic Activity of Plant Life - Some Unaccounted Characteristics 12. Scientific Tests 13. Fertilizing: Its Effects on Health 14. Practical Results of the Biodynamic Method 15. Man's Responsibility